What draws you most to a shop front?  Is it the colour of the bricks or how well they have been laid… Or is it the colour of the door and the  revolving sign outside ?  Probably not …. Its more likely to be the overall impact of the appearance and the fact that you want to buy something in there anyway!  But what if you were asked to try to attract people to a shop?  How would you set about drawing attention to the place?  Let's look at a few ways…..

Well… The first thing to do may be to attract customers by displaying something that showed what you were selling.  Some distinctive symbol perhaps - even the company logo. Something that suggested perhaps that your company was a large global organisation.

Many things of course mean something without using words - They can be far more international and more easily understood than written language and of course this is why simple and direct logos are so familiar on products. So as a starting point we need to find a distinctive look for the exterior of our shop.

Something memorable and possibly - but not necessarily -
related to the product or service we are selling.   It may be more an indicator of style or status, or a subtle link with what might be considered good or desirable - the tick of the Nike logo;
or the personal endorsement style of flowing script that can
often be seen on products and looks more like a signature
than a product label.

So at this stage of the project it might be a good point to collect together a
series of 'identities'  - possibly from the web - but much better if from primary research in which you take photos or collect together sketches and images of your own that will  highlight the points you wish to make.  Analyse what you collect - show you are thinking about the task that has been set and show you are making conclusions about the things you have seen around you. 
     
A Spidergram or Brainstorm sheet of associations that could be made with a particular trade or profession would be a good focussing point for the next step of the task.